January vote will be necessary to settle 4th state Senate District race

SACRAMENTO -- A runoff will be necessary in January to decide the winner of the 4th state Senate District seat.

When the final vote tallies in the Nov. 6 special election came in Wednesday night, Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber was 821 votes short of the 50 percent-plus margin necessary to avoid a second vote Jan. 8.

All told, 391,923 votes were cast in the 4th District race, which meant Nielsen needed 189,028 votes to avoid the runoff. His final count released Wednesday evening was 188,207.

Harrington got 104,572 votes.

Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Loma Rica, who had dropped out of the race due to health problems, was third with 43,303. He was followed by Jann Reed, a Chico Unified School District trustee, with 24,966. Dan Levine had 9,882 votes and Ben Emery — who also dropped out of the race — had 7,146.

A chain of events led to the special election. It started in January, when Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, announced he would retire at the end of 2012.